The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-11-06
The Panama Canal.

The real condition Of the Pa ANA Canal
Company has long been matter of dispute.
While NJ. de Lesseps and those associated
with him i'll the great undertaking have
spoken confidently as to the speedy compile
ton of the Work, persons competent to judge
are satisfied that the company is ruined, and
that the scheme will in all probability
be abandoned. OF Americans, perhaps no
one is better prepared to speak from personal
knowledge than Mr.. George c. Hurlput,
who visited Panama n few months since and
made careful examination of the work
done, In the last number of the Forum
he has an article, in which he shows from
the company's own bulletins that it is
doomed to failure at no distant day.
As late as September, 1880, eight months
after the work on the canal was formally
inaugurated, VI. de Lesseps estimated the en-
tire cost at zoe, 00O, 000f and the earth to be
removed at 5000, 600 cubic metres A sub
sequent estimate made the amount to be
removed l20 ,000, 600 metres. Active work
has now continued four years and half
and only about 40,000,000 cubic metres Of
earth have been removed, while the com
pany is paying interest on a debt of ,600,-
GOO, 0O0f. -much more than double the
estimated cost of the whole work, while
accepting the companys own figures, less
than a third Of it has been done. And this
is not the worst. Competent American and
European engineers assert that the COM
pany's estimates are worth nothing, and
that now after the expenditure of so many
millions, the amount OF earth to be re-
moved is fully as great as the French figures
for the whole canal-l2O000, 900 cubic
metres In other words / 900 900, 000f. have
been spent to do nothing at all
1t is true that the company has not re-
ceived nor spent the l 900, 900, 000f. which
it owes. The larger part of the money was
raised on bonds, which were emitted at
ruinously low rates, some as low as 45 per
cent. of the face value. The great discount
allowed on its obligations shows the des-
perate straits to which the company is re-
duced.
Mr.. Hurlbut appears TO have made out
his case, and it seems TO be plain that unless
the French government lends its credit to
the undertaking, it must speedily collapse.
That government is already burdened with
the greatest public debt in the world, and
its credit is far from the best
nevertheless, it, will be sorely tempted
to extend its help The entire breaking
down of the enterprise would almost Ger
tainly cause great financial CONFUSION,
which might do even more harm than the
large increase in annual expenditure and in
a ~
sary in the event the canal enterprise were
made a national one 1t would involve,
also, a great loss of French prestige and
blow 10 French pride.::
On the whole, the outlook is very gloomy,
and great events may yet hinge on NJ de
Lesseps' attempt TO connect the two oceans.
A cablegram from Paris announces that he
has just informed the Academy of Sciences
that the canal will be open for business in
February, 1890, but he has so frequently
made statements about his scheme which
have not proved to be correct, that his prom
ises are not now depended upon as they once
were Whether he is deliberately
attempting to further hoodwink
the poor and ignorant peasantry,
from the hard earned savings of
which class it is his boast that most of the
Wasted millions have been drawn, it is i'm
possible to say. Living in Paris, thousands
of miles away from the scene of operations
of which he is nominally the engineer. he
can have no personal knowledge of their
progress, and is at the mercy of his
subordinates He may himself be deceived,
but it is hard to believe such
to be the case. 1t really looks as if the
great Frenchman, already far beyond the
natural term of man in years, is endeavor-
ing by every possible means to stave off the
disaster and disgrace involved in the col
lapse of his greatest undertaking until he
shall have gone beyond the reach of re-
proach.